Eight months after escaping from administration after being purchased by Gordon Brothers Europe, Blockbuster is set to re-enter administration due to “poor trading” in the UK.
Earlier this year over 200 stores were shut down and 2000 people lost their jobs, with 264 store remaining open after the initial escape from administration. There will already been redundancies made at Blockbuster UK’s head office. The company will put up for sale once again, and will continue to trade as the process takes place.
Blockbuster has struggled to modernise and compete with the likes of Netflix and LoveFilm, as well as other On Demand services, losing out to the convenience of access to lots of content at home compared to renting from a traditional retailer.
We’d like to offer the best of luck to all those affected by the news, and hopefully the chain can turn things around.
Source: BBC
UPDATE:Â Blockbuster has confirmed through their social media channels that they won’t be able to honour any next-gen pre-orders, which will obviously affect a lot of people who were expecting to buy their PS4 or Xbox One through the firm.
@JackInTheBox05 We are sorry that you will be disappointed and that we can’t fulfil any xboxone or PS4 pre-orders at this time.
— Blockbuster UK (@Blockbuster_UK) October 29, 2013
It’s not being handled very well, it seems, as the staff member who asked wasn’t informed of this and had to find out over twitter.
Over on their Facebook page, they have explained that customers who have pre-ordered next generation machines will have to contact their store, or the headquarters if they’ve ordered online.
Source: Eurogamer
Gareth Chadwick
This is annoying. I really like Blockbuster and use them pretty often.
DarkLord
Didn’t Microsoft use blockbuster to proudly promote record Xbox One pre-orders? Guessing it’s not working out to well…
http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/xbox-one-pre-orders-a-record-breaking-hit-for-blockbuster-1155219
How many more companies ended backing the wrong horse?
Tuffcub
Lets face the business model is dead, for the price of renting two movies in Blockbuster you can have a whole month of Netflix or LoveFilm, pay a bit more and you can get NowTV which I find to be fab.
jimmy-google
I’ll take the online disc rentals over stuff like netflix any day. They don’t provide new enough content
Alex C
And normally sub-par bitrates. I prefer disks too.
fattyuk
nowtv on ps3
xbmc with 1channel/ice films on acer revo hooked upto tv
=
Film heaven.
( plus cheap Blu rays to buy from blockbuster)
TheDemocrodile
Ahhh shame, walking into a Blockbuster is a bit like stepping back in time though, no surprises about its fate.
Oh and the South Park episode about it was fantastic, well done on not mentioning it at all, that’s willpower right there.
Starman
Not surprising, nothing they sell is cheaper than anywhere else. Games prices since the last buyout have been ridiculous. And as others have said, their model of film rental is not able to compete with others.
jimmy-google
Seems slightly strange as their online disc rentals have been struggling to keep up with demand, especially with lovefilm stopping game rentals
stonyk
To be fair they will not be missed other than for nostalgic purposes. They just cannot compete with online and I think film and game media are the most ideal for cheaper on-line shopping.
The only odd thing is perhaps if they could have just survived until the new console release they could have, well, survived. I imagine there is a lot of money to be made on new consoles. Would be the perfect time to reinvent themselves.
arrybags
I have used their second hand market place a lot on recent months.
The other week I got Deus Ex on ps3 and Alan Wake on 360 for a combined £4
Got loads of cheap blu rays as well. So to me this is a shame.
rossthebassist
Blockbusters had 1 opportunity left, and they messed it up.
They needed to shift the film rental model from a pay per film to a monthly price. kind of like love film, with the added bonus of having stores you could visit instead. Stores give a retail opportunity for high margin confectionery etc etc.
GAMES could have been a big factor but they doomed themselves when they sold gamestation to GAME all those years ago.
If they come out of it, it needs a serious investor, with serious time to make the changes needed to keep that model alive… alas i think it would be too much for someone to want to do.
R1MJAW
I wonder if PS4 software will be affected too (I assume it probably will be). I have Lego Marvel pre-ordered as it was only £40, 10 quid cheaper than anywhere else. I shall have to ask the next time I’m in.
TSBonyman
That’s a shame but kind of inevitable due to online competition. I can’t remember the last time i rented a movie anywhere. There came a point where it was more value for me to buy dvds than to rent them and i never looked back.